China Mobile has already deployed 5G-Advanced technology in hundreds of Chinese cities, as of the end of last year.
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile carrier in terms of subscribers, has outlined plans to deploy 340,000 additional 5G base stations in 2025. With these new 5G deployments, China Mobile’s total 5G base stations will reach nearly 2.8 million by the end of 2025.
By the end of 2024, its total mobile subscriber base had surpassed one billion, an increase from 991 million the previous year. Its 5G subscriber base increased by 18.7 percent year-on-year to 552 million. The company highlighted that 5G customers accounted for 55 percent of its overall mobile base at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, ARPU declined 1.6 percent to CNY49.30 ($6.80), while average monthly data usage remained stable at 15.9GB. For the full year, China Mobile reported a five percent increase in net profit, reaching CNY138.4 billion, while operating revenue climbed 3.1 percent to CNY1 trillion. Service revenue grew three percent to CNY889.5 billion, and product sales saw a 3.8 percent increase to CNY151.3 billion.
China Mobile now categorizes revenue into four segments: mobile, home broadband and smart home, enterprise, and new business. Mobile revenue saw a slight decline of 1.3 percent to CNY483.7 billion, while home broadband expanded 8.5 percent to CNY106.8 billion. Enterprise revenue increased by 8.8 percent to CNY209.1 billion. New business revenue climbed 8.7 percent to CNY53.6 billion.
“Accumulatively, there were over 2.4 million 5G base stations put into use [at the end of 2024]. We have built the world’s first large-scale commercial 5G-A network, with RedCap covering all cities nationwide and gigabit broadband covering 480 million households,” said China Mobile tin its annual report.
China Mobile previously stated it planned to launch 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology in over 300 cities across China by the end of 2024. To showcase its new 5G-A network, China Mobile had established 5G-A demonstration halls in various locations across China.
China plans to construct over 4.5 million 5G base stations in 2025 while introducing additional policy and financial incentives to support industries expected to shape the next decade, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) previously announced during its annual work conference.
With 4.19 million 5G base stations already operational across China, the MIIT emphasized that “promoting 5G revolution and 6G innovation will be one of the priorities” for 2025, according to a report by Chinese newspaper China Daily.
In addition to its expected expansion in the 5G field, China noted that it is also set to begin trials for 10-gigabit optical networks and enhance computing power infrastructure, reflecting the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
